Dark was the night

While improvising you often borrow little parts of known music. Sometimes just because it fits in, sometimes because you liked it and you want to explicitly remind another artist… It goes like this in jazz, blues, flamenco, salsa, and all the improvised music I know.

NO, NO, NO E POI NO

Willie's title - and apparently John Hurt's line - are words from an 18th century hymn credited to Thomas Haweis. Full words of the hymn are at http://www.cptryon.org/xpipassio/hymns/dark.html

It apparently was popular enough, and good enough to have made an impression on two great musicians. I've never heard any version other than Willie's, so it's very unclear how much of Willie's version is his own, and how much was the version of the hymn that was in general circulation during his lifetime, before his recording in 1927.

As "Frankie" was recorded after "Dark Was the Night", it's possible that John Hurt might have been referring to Willie's version, as he certainly might have heard the record, and, once heard, this piece is never forgotten.

For what it might be worth, to my ear, Willie's melody sounds nothing like anything from the mind of an 18th century English hymnodist, and I strongly suspect that it's purely American in origin, is probably Willie's own melody, and is surely his own arrangement. I would not be surprised to learn that when he was asked for a title to put on the record, he did not have one, and simply reached for a hymn title that was not inappropriate - but that is pure speculation on my part.

You - and I - are not the first to be hypnotized by this recording, and we will not be the last, as it was part of the Voyager Golden Record, sent into space in 1977 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record).